


a leap of faith

by LittleHandGrenade



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space, F/M, or maybe not, you can interpret it however you want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:21:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23626825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleHandGrenade/pseuds/LittleHandGrenade
Summary: Judy thinks she could kiss him, if it weren’t for the fact that they’re wearing helmets and her body seems to keep pulling her back into the nothingness of space.
Relationships: Judy Hopps & Nick Wilde, Judy Hopps/Nick Wilde
Kudos: 28





	a leap of faith

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to write a fic about this two since I watched the Zootopia film six times on theaters when it first came out. It's been a long way from there to this day. This is for the first trope bingo entry: Sci-fi AU, a challenge of sorts I'm doing with my gal BadGirlRunningWild, and it was inspired by the film 'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets'.
> 
> A huge thank you to StarkbuckGirl for helping me brainstorm some ideas for this fic (if anything about the way I adressed the oh-so-fake gravity in this fic makes sense, it's thanks to her, she's my science friend! If it doesn't, well, it's entirely my fault, she made a superb job). 
> 
> Also I did this without a Beta because I like to live dangerously, so proceed to read with caution.

With nothing to hold onto Judy feels herself slipping to the side, right into one of the glistening white walls of the long corridor that seem to be attempting a change in positions with the glimmering steel floor as the whole thing turns to the left in slight and slow motions. “Oh, sweet cheese and crackers!” Even with her gravity boots on, every step she takes is beginning to feel more and more like floating which is not exactly good news, especially in her current situation with four angry and armed members of the RAMS* team on her heels.

She turns her head slightly to look over her shoulder where a couple of steps behind her Nick seems to be experiencing the same difficulties. He is also fiddling with the device they stole from said group of RAMS back in their laboratory, where they finally put together the last pieces of the mysterious puzzle that had been developing in the background of the Zootopia Spatial City during the last months. It looks like a tablet, a metallic device with just a couple millimeters of width and the size of a hand (a big one like Nick’s, she needed both of hers to hold it which is why he ended up carrying it on their not-so-well-planned-escape), covered with a glass screen that displays information of the machine it controls. Or the machine that controls it.

They really didn’t have much time to ask for the instruction manual and true to their fashion, they’re mainly improvising with how much they could gather before they were discovered prying on a very secret and very evil conversation.

It is going as well as one might expect.

Nick keeps his eyes glued to the device as he runs, focused on trying to make some sense of the information on it in hopes he can catch something that will help them end the madness they are currently subjected to. That’s probably the reason why he doesn’t notice the shift in gravity until he takes a very forced step that ends with him face planting on the floor due to the inertia of his movement. It takes her a moment to be able to stop herself, the soles of her boots skidding over the metal and almost taking her down too with the sudden interruption of her movement.

She jogs in his direction with a vigilante ear on the lookout for the sound of steps coming closer to them.

“Are you alright?” Judy asks in a shushed voice, and to her credit, she doesn’t sound like she is mocking him at all even if the chances to make fun of Nick are normally scarce. That of course does not mean she’s not committing his dumbfounded expression to memory so she can laugh at him once they get out of there and find the magnetic shifter that’s fucking up with the city’s artificial gravity, turning it off and saving the day as per usual. Right now though, they have more pressing and urgent matters to attend if they really want to do so.

Nick’s on his hands and knees, not bothering in standing up or paying attention to her as he reaches for the device that is lying on the floor a couple of meters away from them. The screen is cracked and he frowns as he touches it, extending his finger carefully over it as if it were to crumble with the smallest of pressures. “Looks like it still works” he lets out in a sigh and Judy rolls her eyes impatiently, extending a hand in his direction to help him get up.

Behind them, someone shoots a blaster in their direction, the laser barely missing her head by an inch or two.

“Can you still run?”

Nick finally looks up while taking her hand, showing one of those crooked smiles she has come to know so well in their last five years as partners, “Let’s find out, Hopps.”

*****

The command center of the station is closed. There’s an alarm blaring, accompanied by a red light that won’t stop going on and off, an indicator of Judy’s failed attempts at trying to crack the password that would make the aluminum gates open. Nick rolls his eyes, pushing her aside just the moment another gravity shift hits them and Judy barely has the chance to grasp him by the sleeve of his space suit, clinging to his arm to avoid going off through the hallway rolling like a drunk tumbleweed.

“I know you can’t let go of me, _Carrots_ , but this is really not the time for this.”

She gives him an unimpressed look and Nick shakes his head, muttering a soft “ _Mood killer_ ” that almost goes unheard over the sound of him shooting his phaser right into one of the metal doors. They remain in place, Nick holding for dear life to the security lock attached to the wall and she doing the same with him. The gravity fluctuations have become closer in between and they seem to last longer every time a new one happens, so once it has passed, they sprint through the hole and into the control room, unsure of how much it will last this time. They have to hurry. The sight that welcomes them, however, it’s not the most inspiring.

All of the computers appear to have been smashed, pieces of glass, metal and wires covering the floor and the lever on the left wall that activates the artificial gravity of the station has been pulled out of its place, rendering it useless. They can’t communicate back to the station with Sargent Major Bogo and they also won’t be able to keep the station in place long enough to think of a different plan.

“Shit” Nick mutters under his breath and she can’t do nothing more than agree with the sentiment. She takes a look through the glass panel on the other side of the room where she gets a panoramic view of Sahara Square and the other neighboring stations. There’s even a small balcony with a railing that you can access through a crystal door if you want to take a closer look of the city. You can also observe the landing platform two or three levels below, where there are only two remaining ships: Theirs and a big white one, undoubtedly the one the RAMS plan to scape in.

There’s no way they’ll make it back to Sahara Square before whatever they’re trying to stop finishes canceling the gravity that keeps the city together, confining them both in Tundratown. Unless…

“You aren’t afraid of heights, right _slick_?”

*****

Turns out Nick is in fact afraid of heights. “Are you crazy? We’re going to get ourselves killed and tell me if I’m wrong, but dying in that platform sort of defies the main purpose of why we’re trying to escape from here in the first place.”

“There’s no other way out!” she practically screams, exasperated at his denial, “Is either this or surrendering and letting them get their way destroying the whole city!”

“I’m not doing it Carrots.”

He means it, he’s got that subtle yet determined expression that she has seen on him enough times to recognize it. She bites her lower lip with her front teeth (‘ _Bunny teeth’_ , he told her once, his thumb pulling her lip softly to free it. She thought he was going to kiss her. _He didn’t_.). Her right foot is tapping frantically against the ground as she tries to think. They could run back and check if there is some forgotten capsule in one of the emergency exits, but they would risk getting caught.

She looks down to the docks, the Tundratown station floating a couple meters away from the Sahara Station Square. No, they have to this now, before the lack of gravity becomes absolute and sends this and the other stations floating away into deep space.

“Give me the device,” she commands him, stretching her left arm and taking a deep breath while looking down. It’s quite the fall, but hopefully not big enough to kill her. She would hate him being right.

“Hopps.”

“You made it clear you are not going to jump Nick, but I will, and I’m gonna need the device.” She turns to look at him, brows furrowed, heart hammering inside her chest.

“You’re mental” he chastises as he extends it to her. 

“Tell me something I don’t know” she tries to give him the best attempt of a smile she can summon in the moment, but it comes out a little sad, “For all it’s worth Nick, you…”

“No, no, stop it” he cuts her short, shaking his head and scoffing, “Don’t get all mushy on me Carrots, you’re going to make me cry and then once you save the day and we’re back to normal you’re never going to let me live it down.”

This time her smile is genuine. She takes her free hand to her forehead in a military way, a salute, a goodbye, _a promise_. Then, she takes a step to the front. She has just begin her fall when she thinks how much of a bad idea it was. Even as everything around her begins to blur due to the acceleration and the floor seems to be coming at her faster and faster, it feels like she’s been falling for hours. Her pulse is in her ears and her throat and for a moment, she laments not having said goodbye. To her parents. To her brothers. To Nick. God, Nick! He is going to have to watch her getting crushed in the pavement. She wishes she could turn back time to apologize. A second later, she hits the floor, the hand that’s not holding the device twisting under her as she tries to use it to delay the impact of her landing. Judy’s not sure if it is broken, the lacerating pain that runs to her elbow agrees to disagree, but she doesn’t have time to figure it out so she rolls to her side and then stands up, trying to ignore the ache.

She’s running in direction of their spacecraft when a voice that suddenly seems to be too far away calls her name and she stops, turning around to look up at the red haired and black clad figure on the railway.

“I’m afraid,” he confesses and there’s so many things she wishes she could say, ‘ _me too Nick_ ’, ‘ _I know what it feels like to be afraid’_ , but she finally goes for a “ _You don’t have to be_ ,” and there is something in the way he looks at her, a spark that she tries to fuel, to ignite. “Think of this as… as a leap of faith!”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean, Carrots?”

“Do you trust me?” Judy asks and for what feels like a second too long Nick only stares at her before nodding, “Then jump!”

He does.

*****

“I think I broke my shoulder, this is the last time I decide to trust you.”

“Yeah, I heard you the first time” _And the other eight after that one_ , she murmurs to herself, trying to remember why she wanted Nick to come with her in the first place.

There’s a weird buzz in the air, one she recognizes as the beginning of a change in gravity.

“Run” she barely hears him shout under his oxygen helmet “We’re running out of time.”

They still got a good 90 feet remaining between them and the spaceships and nowhere on the long esplanade to wait for it to pass. Judy pushes herself, past the exhaustion and the pain, trying to run as fast as she can while her feet lift off the ground, but it’s becoming clear she’s not going to make it. Nick is already on the boarding ramp when she calls for him, tossing the device in his direction with her good arm. A second later, her whole body is floating away. She closes her eyes, resigning herself to her fate, when there’s a tug in her arm. She opens them again to find Nick holding her by the wrist, the device hastily tucked on his belt and his other hand gripping one of the railings on the ramp of their spaceship that thankfully remains secured to the platform.

“You don’t get to leave me like this Carrots” he smiles at her and Judy thinks she could kiss him, if it weren’t for the fact that they’re wearing helmets and her body seems to keep pulling her back into the nothingness of space. The smile in Nick’s face gets replaced by an expression of distress that mirrors the pain shooting through her right arm and that leaves her unable to do anything but scream. They’re the most excruciating minutes of her life and she’s about to tell Nick that she can’t take it anymore and to let her go when gravity hits them one more time, sending them stumbling to the floor. They stay there for a moment, heavy breathing and trying to overcome their ache, her laying over him. She sees him smiling at her, or so she thinks, it’s hard to tell due to the breath that clouds the visor on his helmet, and she smiles back, her heart hammering against her chest but this time, it has nothing to do with their escape.

“Not that I don’t enjoy having you all over me, Carrots, but unless you want to re-do that scene all over again we better start moving.”

She gives him a puzzled look before she remembers there are more urgent matters to attend, “Right! The gravity shifter!” Judy stands up, trying to avoid Nick’s gaze so he doesn’t notice the redness of her cheeks.

“Start the engines” she calls to C4RR0T’s as they enter the spaceship and Judy begins to fiddle with the buttons on her side of the console. On his seat, Nick keeps taking deep breaths “What are you doing?” she asks him absently while typing the coordinates to the station, a ridiculous requirement of the ship that only proves to be a waste of time every time “You have to drive.”

“I thought you were driving, broken shoulder, remember?”

Judy gives him a look of disbelief before they both burst into laughter. This is not how the conversation usually goes, and she doesn’t mean the edge of hysteria in their laughs.

It doesn’t last for long, interrupted by a soft voice calling after them “Agent Hopps, Agent Wilde?” They turn to the entrance of the cockpit, where a short woman with huge glasses and curly white hair is looking at them with a terrified look on her face.

“Bellwether?” her name comes out of Nick’s lips as a question. Judy thinks she couldn’t have said it any better.

“Thank god!” the woman exclaims, entering the small room to get closer to them. “I was in a meeting on the second floor when they started evacuating the station,” she begins to explain, “I went back to see there wasn’t anyone left inside but when I came out there were only this two ships, I recognized yours and I’m so glad you’re here!” she’s practically sobbing at this point. Her green eyes turn to look at the device, lying haphazardly over the command center. Judy takes it in her hands to avoid it from falling again, one more crack on the screen and it would probably be rendered useless “Oh, I see you took the controller from the RAMS’!”

Nick has finally begun to do his share of work to get the ship started and he is so focused on it he doesn’t pay much attention to the small exchange of words. However, Judy does.

“Sorry?”

Bellwether looks at her with confusion all over her features and Judy cannot help the small crease that forms between her brows.

“How did you know it is a controller? _And how did you know that we stole it from the RAMS?_ ”

Bellwether’s worried expression suddenly turns into stone, stoic and cold like a statue. The only thing that denotes any kind of feelings is the curve of one of her eyebrows, dangerously lifted up.

Then she smiles. “I guess the charade is over now.”

*****

Bellwether is pointing Nick’s phaser to his head, hers is lying on the floor away from her reach and their spacecraft is plummeting to the ground. Suffice to say, Judy Hopps has had better days.

Nick lays tied to the co-pilot chair thanks to the magnetic handcuffs Bellwether stole from his pocket. She might be old, but she’s also fast and wickedly smart and Judy can’t stop reprimanding herself for having underestimated her. She should know better than holding people to stupid misconceptions: Bellwether is the Mayor’s assistant, she is quiet and nice and she lets Mayor Lionheart take the credit for each and every one of her ideas without ever talking back. And now, Bellwether is going to destroy Zootopia, but not before she murders her and Nick.

“The _orphan_ and the _farm girl_ , you really thought you could stop me?” Bellwether asks, that dangerous smile of hers still plastered to her lips. Judy’s eyes move to scan Nick’s figure, half-conscious thanks to the pain and the blow on his head, the last one courtesy of the other woman “ _How cute_.”

Judy wishes she had any idea about what to do, but right now, her mind feels stuck, unable to come with a solution for her predicament: She can’t let Bellwether destroy the city, but she’s definitely not going to let her kill Nick.

“So, this is how things are going to be,” she turns to look at Bellwether at the sound of her voice, the device still secured in her hands “You’re going to give me that little thing you’re holding and then I’ll take your weapon and jump of this spaceship” Just then Judy notices the small backpack Bellwether is holding. _A jet-pack, or a prototype of it_. “Of course, not before I knock you out.”

This can’t be it, this can’t be how it all ends, they were supposed to save the city. Yet, her mind remains blank, unable to find a solution.

“Well?”

“Drop the weapon” Judy commands, rising both her hands over her head, the device balancing precariously on top “Dropt the weapon and I’ll give you the device.”

Bellwether seems to weigh her options before agreeing, leaving the phaser at Nick’s feet, “No funny business, you hear me, Hopps?” Judy nods not moving from her place in the middle of the command room, her eyes locked on Bellwether’s the whole time. The smaller woman walks in her direction, one of her arms reaching over their heads to get hold of the artifact.

Judy tackles her, all the force of her small body colliding against Bellwether. It doesn’t take long before the older woman is straddling her, the device tucked under one of her arms, her other hand closing against Judy’s neck. Their eyes remain locked as Judy feels the air leave her lungs, the world around her becoming fainter and fainter around her pain. It only takes one moment, Bellwether still looking at her, Judy’s broken hand trying to locate the weapon on the back of her utility belt while trying not to attract too much attention to her movement.

It’s old and small, the model had been discontinued before she was even born, but it is the only thing she has right now. She has a distant memory of Nick mocking her for it, something about it being older than his grandma is and their phasers having the same function, only a thousand times more powerful. But her father gave it to her before she boarded the space shuttle to get from the Burrows Belt to the spatial city as a mean of protection and even after five years, she hasn’t found it in her to part with it. Nick has a reason to call her sentimental.

She feels like she’s about to pass out right before she puts the stun weapon against Bellwether’s side and a second later, she’s watching Bellwether convulse over herself.

Judy takes a deep breath, filling her lungs with air. By her side, Bellwether remains still and for a moment, Judy is scared she might have killed her.

“Not that I want to rain on your parade Carrots” Nick’s voice interrupts, stopping her before she has enough time to panic about it, “But we’re about to crash with the main square.” 

*****

Somehow, they actually manage to save the city.

Bellwether receives a forty-five years sentence in jail, Mayor Lionheart awards them with a medal, they get to do a couple of televised interviews and Sargent Major Bogo gives each one a small clap on the back before assigning them on desk duty for the next ten weeks. The first thing is more than they had hoped for and he’ll probably regret putting them behind a desk so much time, everyone at the precinct knows she and Nick can never stay put for too long.

Overall, they are surprisingly pretty much alive and Judy feels that’s enough for now.

*****

They are in a tropical planet, the soft rays of the three suns on the sky and the soft summer breeze caressing her skin.

Just after they finished their desk duty Bogo sent them on a long vacation without even bothering on listening to them, “I can’t say it surprises me coming from Hopps, but you haven’t taken any vacations in the last two years either Wilde.” Nick had made a point of avoiding Bogo’s eyes after that statement for the rest of the time they were on his office (it wasn’t much, Sargent Major Bogo doesn’t like to talk, at least not to them).

Judy did not ask, she never does, not until now anyway.

“Nick?” she calls, taking out her sunglasses to get a better look of him. He is sipping on a coconut with his eyes closed and barely ‘hums’ to acknowledge her. She takes a deep breath, similar to the one she took after she freed herself from Bellwether’s grip three months ago. It’s probably a testament to her character that she feels more scared doing this than she felt back then. “We haven’t talked about what happened that day.”

He doesn’t answer. That’s why they make such a terrific pair, they’re both good at ignoring the elephant in the room at their own convenience, both of them equally stubborn.

She’s about to repeat her statement when he lets out a soft “We really don’t have to.”

“Nick…”

“Look, Carrots” he sighs, leaving his coconut to rest in the sand and turning to look at her, “There’s really nothing to talk about: My father was never in the picture, I had a mother until I didn’t and then I went to live with my grandmother who unfortunately is still a pain in my ass to this day.” There’s a strange fondness on his voice when he says that, but she doesn’t pressure him to elaborate.

None of them says anything for a while after that, both looking out at the horizon, at the sea with its soft waves and the people who swim in it, bathing in the pink waters. She’s not sure how to proceed from there when Nick takes a deep breath, “And I have you now, you’re the closest thing to a family I’ve had ever since,” She deflates at that and he gives her a curious glance over his aviator sunglasses.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.”

“Wh-” she does not allow him to finish, taking a deep breath and standing up, closing the distance between their lounge chairs and sitting on the edge of his. He sits to get a better look of her still eyeing her with curiosity.

“It’s just… You looking at me like family is going to make what I’m about to do next a little awkward.”

She kisses him, slow and shy. _This is it_ , Judy thinks, if he makes a joke out of this she’s not sure she’ll be able to take it. He seems to be paralyzed under her touch but just when she’s about to step away he’s kissing her too, a little bit more aggressive, passionate and hard, just the way she always imagined kissing Nick would feel like. Not that she thought about it, _much_.

Judy doesn’t know how long they stay like that, their lips pressed together, her recovered hand set on the rough skin of his cheek, slowly caressing it. Even when her lungs begin to ache for the lack of oxygen, she feels a little reluctant to let him go, unsure if she’s going to be able to catch him one more time. “What was that?” he asks, voice hoarse with surprise. She notices his hands are on her hips, holding her close to him.

She smiles, happy and bright with her bunny teeth in full display, and then says “ _A leap of faith_.”

**Author's Note:**

> *RAMS: Research and Application of Mechanics on Space (or something that makes more sense).


End file.
